Alison

@inkyali

You know this world is killing me. Lexington, KY.

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Alison@inkyali· 28d

Found this @subpress.bsky.social edition of @alixeharrow.bsky.social’s Starling House at the adorable Fable Tree Bookshop in Titusville, PA. 😍 (Alix, you are the owner’s favorite author and all your books are faded out!)

A photo of Alix E. Harrow’s novel “Starling House.” The cover is dark and dreamy.

Alison@inkyali· Jul 12

I’m working this morning and shewwwww, this clinic knows how to make a gal twitchy.

A sign on a door that reads “Door will close on it’s own”. And we all know it should be “its,” right?

Alison@inkyali· Jun 6

News you can use: Jakob Dylan is still hot.

A photo of a big screen showing Jakob Dylan at the Railbird Festival in Lexington, KY. The screen says “RAILBIRD” at the top, and we can see Dylan underneath. He is wearing a denim shirt, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed hat. He is still hot.

Alison@inkyali· Jun 6

Sid and Nancy say hello.

A photo of two cats sitting on different levels of a small cat tree. Sid is on the middle level; he is a tabby with a white chest. Nancy is on the bottom level of the tree. She is also a tabby-and-white cat, but her fur is long and fluffy. Both cats are looking toward the camera. In the background is a bookshelf, and there is a patio door and patio to the right of the cat tree.

Alison@inkyali· May 18

Inky the Cat and I are ready to go.

A black cat stands next to a broom on a patio, with a brick wall behind. The cat looks a bit stoned; I wish I had been able to get a better photo, but he was moving around a lot.

Alison@inkyali· Mar 22

“I’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.”* 😂 *Thanks, @n4ku.bsky.social, for the caption

A close-up photo I took of the left half of a tabby cat’s face: eye and ear, with a bit of the left paw extending to my chest. In the background is my right hand holding the paperback book I was reading when the cat wormed his way onto my lap.

Alison@inkyali· Feb 16

Our former president should be today's pangram on Spelling Bee.

A screen shot of the NYTimes game Spelling Bee, showing a honeycomb of seven letters, with the letter A in a yellow hexagon in the center. The letters can spell Barack Obama's name, which is typed as all one word above the honeycomb.

Alison@inkyali· Dec 25

My Christmas gift (which I did ask for) from @n4ku.bsky.social. Y’all, it’s so amazing. 😍

A photo of the 12th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate dictionary. It is a red book sitting on a mottled brown table top.

Alison@inkyali· Dec 19

The elderly person in question:

A selfie I took on Tuesday morning just after diffusing my curls. I am smiling; my hair is light brown and curly (and looks great!), I am wearing black glasses frames, and my t-shirt says “I heart trans people.” T-shirt design by https://www.teepublic.com/user/wondershout

Alison@inkyali· Dec 9

The ob-gyn clinic I’m interpreting at this afternoon has some reindeer decorations on the check-in desk. It took me a second to realize they are made out of specula. LOL for days.

A not-great photo of a clear plastic speculum with googly eyes, a purple pompom nose, and pipe cleaner antlers.

Alison@inkyali· Dec 4

Since I can’t think of anything to say, here’s my 2025 Replay. I don’t really listen to Apple Music all that much, so this probably isn’t representative. (And yet…it very much is.)

An image of my Apple Music Replay, showing my Top Three:

Artists: Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala

Genres: Alternative, French Pop, Rock

Songs: Le Soleil Donne (Laurent Voulzy), Tout Seul (Didier Sustrac), Sensualité (Axelle Red)

Albums: The Nightfly (Donald Fagen), In Rainbows (Radiohead), Days to Come (Bonobo)

Alison@inkyali· Nov 27

OMG, I made a butt. 😂

Alison@inkyali· Nov 10

I put this down one chapter in and only picked it up again tonight; I am cracking up at the last sentence here. Please note that this was published in 1972:

A photo of a paragraph from “Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!” by M.E. Kerr, originally published in 1972.

“When Natalia returned, she had written something under Tucker's invitation.
‘I'll go if Dinky has a date for it too.’

To Tucker's mind, that was like Natalia saying she'd go if it snowed for three months straight in Biloxi, Mississippi, or if all the Republican members of Congress asked for asylum in Russia.”

Alison@inkyali· Oct 30

Welp, I purchased a used library copy (with a 21st c. cover design) of this book, and I used my bookseller’s skills to remove all the extraneous stickers. Commencing reading, engines on.

I am holding the book “Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!” by M.E. Kerr. You can barely see my left hand, and the cover is from 2007 and it is drawn like a graphic novel or cartoon; it shows a black cat with glowing yellow eyes set against a brick wall. There is a text balloon that forms a cloud above the cat’s head with the title of the novel within it.

Alison@inkyali· Oct 25

I understand! Our next-door neighbor got some new kittens last Christmas, and they've started letting them outside. I am glad I get to love on them, but we do live near a busy road. Here’s one of them. The other one is black.

A photo of a young buff/orange cat awaiting pets on top of a blue recycling bin. The cat is in mid-action, about to flop onto its side.

Alison@inkyali· Oct 16

My French hometown just appeared on Jeopardy! 😃

The Jeopardy! answer—photo taken of the actual TV screen—is “LA ROCHELLE, FRANCE & SANTANDER, SPAIN ARE PORTS ON THIS BAY”

Alison@inkyali· Oct 6

Without downloading anything new, where are you mentally?

"THE GREATEST CRIMES IN THE WORLD ARE NOT COMMITTED BY PEOPLE
BREAKING THE RULES
BUT BY PEOPLE FOLLOWING THE RULES. IT'S PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW ORDERS THAT DROP BOMBS AND MASSACRE VILLAGES."

- Banksy

As seen on the wall at the Moco Museum in Amsterdam, September 2025.

Alison@inkyali· Sep 29

He spoke at the Kentucky Theatre as part of a film festival, then there was a screening of his directorial debut film, "Eric LaRue." I had a front-row seat to the talk, but I couldn’t stick around for the film. I was also trying to be subtle about taking his photo, so it’s not the best framing!

Actor Michael Shannon sits cross-legged on the stage at the Kentucky Theatre on 9/28/2025. He is wearing a ball cap backwards, a robin’s-egg blue bowling-type shirt, faded black jeans, and tennis shoes. He is holding a microphone in his right hand as he speaks to the audience.

Alison@inkyali· Sep 29

Thinking of seeing Michael Shannon speak yesterday, and how one of my favorite bits from him is the sorority letter. 😆

A screencap of the New York Times game Spelling Bee. The possible letters today are A, C, N, O, P, T, and U, with P being the letter that must be used. I typed “cuntpunt,” which is in the sorority letter that Michael Shannon recreated a few years back. (Yes, “cunt punt” is probably two words. It’s a joke.)

Alison@inkyali· Sep 27

I’m reading Kamala Harris’s book “107 Days,” and I must express my annoyance at an inaccuracy. Harris recounts a meeting with Angela Merkel, who consults her interpreter at one point. INTERPRETER, not translator. There’s a difference! (Spoken vs. written word, natch.)

A photo of page 76 in “107 Days,” showing the following paragraph:

"They used to call me.." She turned to her translator, whom she'd barely consulted during our meeting, and said a German word.
"It is a very ugly bird," the translator explained.
"They used to call me this—this ugly bird," she said. "And at first,
it hurt me deeply."
She leaned forward.
"Don't you ever let them make you cry."

Alison@inkyali· Sep 4

Serious business in southwestern France. (Hashtag later, uh, skeet?)

A photo of a glass of rosé wine on a café table in a village in France. The sunlight is nicely illuminating the wine, and behind the glass of wine, blurred, you can see two glasses of water, the backs of two chairs, and further back, some blurry people sitting at other café tables. The sky is really blue.

Alison@inkyali· Aug 30

Sid Vicious is coming with me.

A photo of a grey-and-white tabby cat sitting in an empty suitcase on the floor. He is very cute.

Alison@inkyali· Aug 29

Me at 21, in a sorority composite photo (yes! I was in a sorority, what of it?). This was before my hair got curly, but I was already wearing silver hoops in my ears, as I still do today. A bunch of us wore the same sweater/necklace for this photo, I recall. Anyway, youth is so wasted on the young.

Four small photo portraits of me at age 21— a smiley blonde gal with dimples—taken for a sorority composite. The words “Unretouched proof, Fraternal Composite Service, Inc.” are stamped on the bottom of each photo.

Alison@inkyali· Aug 20

Like mother, like daughter: My elder child was proofreading a menu translation (French —> English) and found a rookie (or AI) mistake. She texted me about it; her caption made me laugh:

This is a screen cap of a text, with a photo of a menu from a Swiss restaurant in it. In larger font, in French, is written “LES ENTRÉES” and underneath is the (Swiss?) German translation “Vorspeisen” and a bad English translation, “Entrances.”

Yes, “entrée” means “entrance,” but it is also the starting course of a meal. My daughter’s comment about it was, “My eyes are bleeding,” which you can see at the bottom of the screen cap.

Alison@inkyali· Aug 15

Also, this is not what the phrase means. 😂 It’s an expression of frustration, worry, fear, disappointment. It could be anger too. I’ll link to a great explanation/etymology that has some equivalents in other languages below.

A screen cap from the Translate app on my phone, saying:

Translate
French <
Putain, j'ai les boules
English (US) *
Damn, I have the balls

Alison@inkyali· Jul 28

Throwback to the time in 2019 I met then-governor Roy Cooper outside the mansion in Raleigh. He walked up to our group and said, “I’m Roy Cooper,” and I blurted, “Hi, Roy!” A split second later, I realized he must be the governor. 🤦🏼‍♀️😂 Anyway, he spent a few minutes chit-chatting with us.

Then-governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper with his leashed dog. Cooper is smiling and wearing a royal blue polo-type shirt and tan shorts. The dog is a mixed breed and we can’t see its face. It’s a medium-sized dog with golden-orange fur. In the background we can see a gate and the governor’s mansion behind it.

Alison@inkyali· Jul 12

If you have an iPhone there is a way to copy text in an image, using a little symbol on the bottom right in the Photos app. Here is the image again with alt text; it’s too much to fit into one post.

A Prayer Before Reading the News (written by Rabbi Irwin Keller in early 2016)
Elohai neshamah shenatata bi tehorah hi
My God, the soul you have placed in me is pure and vulnerable. I am afraid that looking at today's news will be painful. Encircle me in a robe of light so that l can witness the wounds of the world without being wounded myself. Let me learn what I need to know in order to be of my greatest use, without being overwhelmed by despair. I feel your protective light now as l open myself to the world's suffering and the world's joys. Amen

Alison@inkyali· Jul 4

French people know how to fuck shit up.

A strike by air traffic controllers is disrupting travel to, from and over France Associated Press 01:22AM ET, 07/04/2025

PARIS (AP) - About 40% of flights were canceled Friday at all Paris airports and tens of thousands of passengers were rearranging plans at the height of the summer travel season because of a strike by French air traffic controllers seeking better working conditions.
Disruptions started hitting airports around France on Thursday and intensified Friday. The national civil aviation authority asked airlines to cancel 40% of flights Friday at Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais airports serving Paris, half of flights in Nice and 30% of flights in Marseille, Lyon and some other cities.
Despite the preventive cancelations, the authority warned in a statement that "disruptions and long delays are to be expected at all French airports."

Alison@inkyali· Jun 23

I keep coming back this, in downtown Pittsburgh on June 14, after the No Kings rally. I had driven in from points north, and saw this guy while I was at a stoplight. The dude with the American flag cape was talking to him. I scrounged for my phone, and managed to snap this photo before the green.

A photo showing a white man standing on a street corner, holding a sign that reads, “Let Iran build nukes.” On the left of the photo is another white man with his back to the camera; he is wearing an American flag as a cape and is walking away. The two men had been conversing just prior to my taking the photo.

Alison@inkyali· Jun 18

I wish I could have donated more, but I just made my Parent PLUS loan payment, which put a huge dent in my bank account!